- 1 week ago
Master P on 'Never and Again,' Black Ownership, and More
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00:00Sorry.
00:00Sorry?
00:01Come on, bro, this is a dog.
00:02After all these years, that's all you got to say is sorry?
00:06Have I thought you had my back?
00:10Thank you so much for chatting with Essence.
00:13We're super excited about this film.
00:15We love a rom-com.
00:17So tell us what you can tell us about Never Again
00:21and what drew you and Romeo to produce this film?
00:24Yeah, me and Romeo executive produced this film
00:27because this is like a love story.
00:31You got drama in it and it has fate in it.
00:34And Never Again is about finding love young
00:37and then moving on.
00:39And you saying Never Again, you just never know.
00:42And then you see that person again
00:44and you realize everything you was looking for
00:47has been right around you the whole time.
00:49So I can relate to this.
00:51And I know a lot of other people can relate to this.
00:54And I think we'd be searching for love
00:57in all the wrong places.
00:59Don't get on your preaching now.
01:01We're about to go in a whole different direction.
01:03I'm just saying it's balance time.
01:06You know what I'm saying, you guys?
01:07You know, it's real though.
01:10It's real.
01:11It is.
01:12I think for people like women are emotional
01:18and men just want respect.
01:20And I think when you balance that out
01:22and you're able to communicate,
01:24then you understand like what you've been missing
01:26and what you've been searching for.
01:28And I also feel like people look for people
01:31to make them happy.
01:32But you got to make yourself happy.
01:34And then somebody else could add to your happiness.
01:37But if you're not happy, you would never be happy.
01:39Never.
01:40Absolutely.
01:41Never again.
01:42I also love that this movie comes with a soundtrack to it.
01:48Like this is making me feel like loving basketball.
01:51Like all, I think we're going to have a lot of emotions around it.
01:54Can you talk about the soundtrack a little bit?
01:55Yeah, the soundtrack is incredible.
01:57Tracy did a wonderful job.
01:59The director and writer Les did an incredible job.
02:03And merging those two together with the soundtrack and the movie,
02:08I feel like we're going to have something now that during this pandemic
02:13that we could say, you know, we excited, we entertained by,
02:16we could listen to some great music.
02:18It's fake bass, it's R&B, it's hip hop all mixed into one.
02:23And like you're going to have a lot of emotions in this movie
02:27because you go from the church house to going to school
02:30to chasing your dreams and your goals.
02:33So this is one of the must-sees.
02:35Okay.
02:37It's on BET Plus and Amazon.
02:40This movie is one of many.
02:42So we're going to give so many African-American
02:47actors and actresses opportunity.
02:49We only own 5% of production in Hollywood,
02:52and we got to change that narrative by creating movies that we make.
02:56I feel like this is going to be opportunity.
02:58Me and Romy are going to give so many talented people opportunity
03:02because we kind of like behind the scenes on this one.
03:06I play a small role, Symphonique play a role in this.
03:10Jackie Long.
03:12I mean, we got so many amazing cast in this movie,
03:16which is incredible.
03:17Yeah.
03:18And I wanted to talk to you about it being on BET Plus
03:21because I feel like, you know, your whole career,
03:23you've been ahead of the game of just trying new things and being some of everywhere.
03:28What kind of opportunities do exist for Black creators with, you know, BET Plus
03:33and streaming platforms in general?
03:35Well, you look at what Tyler Perry was able to do with BET Plus
03:39and put the right eyeballs on that.
03:42We say, you know what?
03:43Why not go through that same system and we share and celebrate each other on this platform
03:50and be able to put content that we can make and create and own and that we can relate to.
03:56So I think we're going to change the narrative.
03:58When you look at Black Panther, that opened so many doors for us, but it wasn't owned by us.
04:04And even when Chaz, when he when he passed, he only made like 500,000 for that movie,
04:10ended up probably making two million.
04:12But when you look at Robert Downey Jr., I mean, the movies that didn't do as well
04:16is that he'd have made over 70 million a movie.
04:19And like, yeah, it's it's it's unbalanced.
04:23And I think everything that we marched for and that we fought for, we didn't have a plan.
04:28And my thing is, is about economic empowerment.
04:31So we're going to show them that it's time to bring some diversity in a lot of these business,
04:38even, you know, from production to movies and films to even product.
04:41You see, I have a product here.
04:43You see this.
04:43This is my Hootie Hoot cereal.
04:45Yeah, making music to making product.
04:48Product outweighs talent.
04:50And I don't know if you guys seen Aunt your mama.
04:53They rebranded that.
04:54But this is the Uncle Pete pancakes.
04:57And the thing about this, they they didn't take it off the shelves.
05:01They rebranded.
05:02And I'm like, this is a mockery of us.
05:04And we have to change that narrative by owning and being a part of economic empowerment.
05:09That's the plan of action we need now.
05:12And we're going to get opportunities to put product on these shelves,
05:15to put movies out in the marketplace.
05:18And I feel like this is only the beginning of me and my partner,
05:20James Lindsay with Rapsnacks.
05:23We're thinking about doing so many other things.
05:26And it's not just about us, but opening the doors for more people.
05:29So it's not just us at the table.
05:31It's thousands of us.
05:33Yeah.
05:33It's Black History Week.
05:35We like Mother of the King opening doors.
05:37We're going to kick them down and by doing business and ownership through us.
05:43And saying that we want to do products that's big for blacks, whites, Asian, Latinos.
05:49But we just want to be able to own it.
05:50Absolutely.
05:51That's what I talk about when I say black business.
05:54Yeah.
05:55I think about, I mean, probably at least once a month, I think about your interlude on
06:00Samadja's album.
06:01Yes.
06:01And you're talking about, you know, I'm offered a million dollars.
06:04And because of that, you knew you were worth so much more.
06:08But it can be hard for people to walk away from guaranteed money and bet on themselves.
06:12And, you know, it's difficult for negotiations and particularly for women.
06:16What advice do you have for people on, I guess, betting on themselves, taking that chance?
06:22And like you said, the ownership.
06:23Yeah.
06:24Well, you know what?
06:24If they could do it, we could do it.
06:26It's just a longer process.
06:28We can't change the past, but we could change the future.
06:31And I think us as African-Americans, we have to stop being angry and broke.
06:37Anger and broke don't go together.
06:40When you're angry and broke, you could never get to the next step.
06:43So when you're at the bottom, the only way you could go is up.
06:47So my thing is saying that if we just start appreciating whatever we got, whatever level
06:52we own and stop being angry, because when we angry, we can't get nothing done.
06:57You're just mad.
06:58You're not going to make no changes.
06:59Just like we burned down a bunch of stuff.
07:02And what happened?
07:02What did we get out of it?
07:03So that's what I mean by being angry and broke.
07:06Even you look at these grocery stores, we burn them now.
07:08But then where are we going to eat at?
07:10And so I'm saying when we get an opportunity, we got to take advantage of the opportunity.
07:15Now they're in limbo.
07:16We got their attention.
07:18We need to go in there and figure out what kind of business that we can do.
07:21I'm doing the same thing at home in New Orleans.
07:22I'm saying they had a store that had a situation.
07:25I'm saying instead of going burn these places down, I'm saying let's go in there and negotiate
07:29to put a lot of black product in there.
07:32Let's do those type of things.
07:34Let's not only see our product in there, let's say I want to see 50 other African Americans
07:40that got great product, put it on the shelves and market it.
07:43This is the way we have to have a plan of action.
07:45When you look at me talking about economic empowerment, it starts with money.
07:50It don't start with us just being angry.
07:52And I'm saying we have to take that anger and switch it to saying let's make a difference.
07:58If we want to feed our people, give back to our community, we have to take the anger out of
08:02how we eliminate the anger and the hate.
08:06We're eliminated with love because everybody is humans.
08:08When you look in the streets, we all march together because we all are tired.
08:12But we need to do something about it.
08:14Yeah.
08:15That's the mission I'm on.
08:17Was there anyone you saw growing up that let you know what you're doing now like it was possible?
08:23Or was this just something?
08:24Yeah.
08:24When you look at Reginald Lewis in the 1970s, he's the first African American that I know
08:30that built a billion dollar empire in the grocery store business.
08:35And also Marlowe the King.
08:36I mean, Marlowe the King, he made me be a dreamer.
08:40I mean, in high school, in middle school, I had to recite, I have a dream.
08:45And I think a lot of people don't realize that we have life and we could go through failures,
08:52go through ups and downs.
08:53I feel all the time.
08:54But when I feel, I feel forward.
08:56I get up and run and try to figure it out.
08:59But I feel like it's a lot of self-hate as African Americans.
09:03We got to get past.
09:04We don't want to see each other.
09:05So think about it.
09:06And I told somebody the other day in New Orleans, Wendell Pierce opened up a grocery
09:10store, right?
09:12That was two years ago.
09:13It ended up closing down because we didn't support it.
09:16And then we always talk about, well, we support them.
09:19We support them because we don't believe in us and we have to stop the self-hate.
09:23So I'm saying, if you want us to create this stuff, and if you want us to have our own
09:28grocery stores, then we have to support us.
09:30Yeah.
09:31We can't be a friend.
09:32It's going to take somebody just standing up and saying, you know what, how do we eliminate
09:38poverty and crime in our community through economic empowerment?
09:42And that's the way we do it through product.
09:44Product outweighs talent.
09:46And I looked at the mission that the people was on before us.
09:50And I said, you know what, they're human, just like us.
09:53Mm-hmm .
09:54So if they could do it, we could do it.
09:56Okay.
09:58I think too, a really great example of something from the startup versus battle.
10:02You know, it was just some fun, get through the time.
10:04Yeah.
10:05Now it's got all kinds of endorsements.
10:07Um, I'm sure somebody has asked you this, but I would love to know, has anyone reached
10:11out to you about a battle?
10:13Are you open?
10:14I want to battle Prada, I want to battle Nike, I want to battle, you know what, I want to
10:25battle all these big major companies, I want to battle all catalogs, you know what I'm saying?
10:31Like, that's what I want to do.
10:33I really, I'm focused on that.
10:35I feel like when I'm mad in life right now, I feel like I want to educate our culture and
10:41our people and give them that game because I feel like during this pandemic, we done created
10:46so many bosses now.
10:48Like people tired of just, you know, I'm fired or I got to go apply for unemployment.
10:54I created a brand called Master P reviews where we review small business products for minorities
11:02and we, we put them on shine, put it through social media, put it on our YouTube channel.
11:06We want us to win.
11:08I think that's what I'm on.
11:09I'm more about, it's a snack wall battle.
11:12Me and James talk about it all the time, like us against them.
11:16So that's what I want to be.
11:17I want to be in that battle.
11:19Okay.
11:20And is there anyone you see, you know, rapper or artist, anyone who you feel like is following
11:27in your footsteps, who you see is a mogul in the making and that you kind of have your eyes on?
11:32Yeah.
11:33You know, I like all the talent that the young talent that I'm seeing from Dre to Kendrick
11:39to Baby to Lil Baby, Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion.
11:45I'm seeing young people saying that, you know what, I could do this.
11:49And now my thing is we just have to be able to educate them on the business side of this.
11:54Now we can't be emotional attached to something.
11:58And I think when I look at a lot of business by us, we get emotionally attached.
12:03And what I'm saying is, so I tell people all the mistakes I made, y'all look at the mistakes
12:08I made and how I was able to bounce back and stand up and take my business to another level.
12:13It's because the education and the wisdom.
12:16We have to really understand what financial advisors is, how to be able to not let them
12:24use us because I told one of my friends the other day, I said, you know what, a financial
12:30advisor don't care about us because we never made it.
12:32They never would talk to us.
12:34We, you know, so is your financial advisor going to be around if you lose all of it?
12:39Right.
12:40And so I tell people any way for me would make me go strong and hard for my people because
12:45I know this is all temporary success.
12:47I want to be able to hand down generational wealth, but this is temporary success if you
12:52don't believe in God.
12:53Blessings will come if you do the right thing.
12:56And that's what I tell people.
12:57So I don't worry about finances.
13:00I do the right thing.
13:01And my business is raised with a garlic business.
13:05It's not about me no more.
13:07I feel like no limit was me.
13:10But I know what I'm doing now.
13:12And I understand it because I put my trust and faith in God.
13:15So it's not about me.
13:16I want to feed my people.
13:17I want to help the elderly.
13:19I want to educate the next generation.
13:22And I feel, you know, that's, that's what it's about.
13:24So I'm happy.
13:25And that's what I mean by if you rich and you angry, something wrong and angry, you have
13:32a problem trying to get up, everybody has 24 hours, you sitting around mad and pouting
13:41and stubborn all day.
13:42It's like, you know what?
13:43The world is moving.
13:44That's moving.
13:45No, nobody's stopping.
13:47Yeah.
13:48If you see the world moving, you're not doing that.
13:50So you further falling back and stop speaking the negativity.
13:54Anybody watching this, don't speak negative for words.
13:58Words manifest is real.
13:59I've always said when I had nothing that, you know what, I got a lot.
14:03Next week, that check coming in the mill, I'm going to be all right.
14:06You know, that inconsistency is what's going to get you to your dreams and your goals.
14:12If you do something every day, you will get results.
14:16And that's what I love about this movie, Never And Again.
14:18Yeah.
14:19So we, we, we did this and we, we, we put the right people with it, the right directors,
14:24the right actors and actresses, the right team behind the team.
14:28It's all us.
14:30Yeah.
14:30And that's what I love about this project.
14:32Like I said, this is just one of many.
14:35Yeah.
14:35And this is only the beginning.
14:36Oh, you know, and lastly, you've given out so much information and knowledge.
14:41But I know a lot of people also are excited about a biopic from you.
14:45And I, I think you mentioned, I think it was just December.
14:48You know, you said it's coming up next.
14:50Yeah.
14:51Obviously we know COVID, it slows things down, but have there been any developments in the timeline?
14:56Yeah, we can't wait till, we got to wait till this pandemic, because a lot of production has
15:02been getting shut down due to COVID.
15:04And, uh, Master P, Ice Cream Man, King of the South, it's going to be incredible.
15:12Um, I just want to thank everybody that supported the documentary.
15:16No Limit Chronicles is number one is up for so many awards.
15:21And I just, I want to thank my fans because my fans came and showed up and took that to number one.
15:29And I just can't wait for the, the actual movie.
15:32And now people know the stories, even young people that really didn't know my story through the
15:37documentary, they, they get it now.
15:39But the movie, I'm telling y'all, the movie is going to be incredible.
15:44Uh, I mean, I can't wait.
15:47Like this is, and to be able to be alive and do your own movie.
15:52And I mean, it's a blessing that, that lets you know that how good God is.
15:56And when you do right, he just continue blessing you.
15:59And that's, and that's what I was telling a guy the other day.
16:01I said, uh, he'll take from the wicked and give it to the righteous.
16:05And for me to be able to be here with my kids, everything that I've been through,
16:09when you see this movie, you're going to say it's nothing but God.
16:13So I give him his glory and, and, uh, I can't wait for this, this, uh, biopic, the movie.
16:20Yeah, we can't either.
16:21Well, thank you so much.
16:23We're excited.
16:24We have never, and again to watch in the meantime, coming out of BC plus and, uh, you know,
16:29congratulations and thank you so much for your time.
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